paint and furniture

Well the painter arrived on Tuesday and is still working on the rest of our house, but Lilah's room finally got painted yesterday. The 'winter gray' paint is on the walls and even though it took me a while to get used to it, I think I kinda like it. But really, who cares what I think of it, Lilah has already told me "I love that paint on my walls!"

We went out to IKEA yesterday evening, got the Hemmes double bed, a PAX wardrobe system, the bedside cabinet and the light fixture. I didn't think we could squeeze it all into our vehicle, but we somehow managed it! So you can guess what we spent today doing. Yes, building furniture. My wonderful husband is so patient! He didn't hang the frames or the shelf yet, which is okay, I'll talk him into doing that another day! Heh!

Lilah was beside herself excited to sleep in her new bed. So excited she could hardly sleep!

the many faces of lilah grace...

winter gray paint

I may not have chosen the paint for it's 'chilly' name, but I really do like the colour!

Guess who arrived today? Yes, the painter! I think I'm more excited than Lilah!
And our crazy wonderful painter, Luis, told Lilah a while back that she could help him paint!! Ahhhh!
Much to my disappointment, she hasn't forgotten his promise!

the crazy little things she says!

: After seeing the pig (that had quite recently given birth) at the farm: "I don't want to have a baby from my bum. I want to adopt a baby from China, 'cause I don't like blood."

: "Look at that steam coming out of the plane in the sky!"

: Walking past a house with a massive fir tree growing in their front lawn: "Why did they not take their Christmas tree down yet?"

: Talking about her cat: "He speaks English, because I adopted him from England!"

: "Mum, do you have to do pilates because your bum is chubbier?!"

: As she was fluffing up the pillows one morning: "We have to get the cracks out of these pillows!" (I think she meant creases!)

Me: Lilah, are you licking the butter off your toast?"
Lilah: "No, my face just sticked into it!" (as she starts laughing uncontrollably!)

wedding anniversary

"As we grow older together,
as we continue to change with age,
there is one thing that will never change...
I will always keep falling in love with you."

12 extraordinary years, of faith, hope and love - God is so good, always.

above: Lorraine, Colin, Jill, Ivan, Jemma Rose & Laura Jane. (two sisters, two brothers, two nieces)

expressions

We took a little stroll down to the river to feed the ducks earlier this week. Unfortunately we couldn't find any for the first while, they were probably all hiding away from the crazy heat wave we've been experiencing lately! So we just kept on walking.

Then as Lilah was sitting on a bench and smiling for a photo, two ducks flew by (up the river) behind me.

This is how Lilah's expression went...

From this...

to this...

and then this!

"the mean king"

lilah: Mama, why could my other Mama not keep me?

me: Well sweetie...I really don't know for sure. We don't know your other Mama, so we can't ask her. Only God knows who your other Mama is. But maybe, I'm not too sure, there could be lots of different reasons, but maybe she couldn't keep you because in China there's a policy made by the government, who are kinda like the kings, that says that some Mamas and Babas can only have one baby.

lilah: Ohhhh, like the mean king that put Moses in the water?

me: Well yes, Pharaoh was a mean king and God wouldn't be happy about that rule he made, but unfortunately sometimes that's the way things work. You know, God knew what was going to happen a long long time ago, before you and I were born. He knew your birth parents wouldn't be able to keep you, so He made a plan and He told us to go to China and get you. God always takes care of us.

lilah: Yep. But God wouldn't be happy with that mean king.

me: No, He wouldn't. You're absolutely right sweetie.

more summer bubbles

"To show a child what once delighted you,
to find the child's delight added to your own
- this is happiness."

chatter! chatter! chatter!

"Ohhhhh, I need to do a pee pee too. I almost didn't recognize that!"

"Why is it a sunny day? Oh I know, is it because it just felt like it?"

The sunshine went in behind the clouds: "Oh, I think it's God turning the light on and off!"

"There shouldn't be a pig in our family, nooooo, because we're wolfs, we're joking wolfs!"

After Baba jokingly told her he was going to throw her into the swimming pool - "Nooooo Baba. I would be quickly dead!"

After leaving her sitting on the counter top to wash her feet in the sink one evening - (Colin and I were sitting chatting in the next room): "Hellooooooooooo! Can some of yous two get me down from here?"

"Christ Jesus came into the world to save Piggy."

"Mama, is there a chance of showers today?"

She loves putting the topping on our homemade pizza, she always says: "Can I put the decorations on the pizza?"

On a dull cloudy day: "I think the sunshine's all done!"

"She didn't obey her Mommy. That's what the Lord says - Children obey your parents!"

"I saw the horses at the farm today and we petted them. We didn't use our hands though, just our arms, because animals could make you sick!"

giving birth

Lilah went to the Experimental Farm as part of her 'camp experience' today. She is absolutely loving camp, the instructors are so wonderful with the children and it does my heart good to see her skip up the street each morning, fully anticipating her day. It's been a busy three days so far and I can tell she is getting more tired each afternoon I pick her up. I gave her a bath and put her into bed a bit earlier tonight. Also, she told me a couple of times over the past few days that her cheek was sore and then today (when chewing) she mentioned her gums were sore. Sure enough, after her bath I checked her back gums and about 1/5th of each of her final two molars have broken through the gum - what a brave girl.

Anyway, here's one of the conversations we had this evening about the farm...

Lilah: I saw baby pigs at the farm today, they were just born last night! ...and the Mama pig had blood, her bum was sore.
Me: Aww Lilah. That's so sweet that you got to see little newborn baby pigs.
Lilah: But why was the Mama pig's bum sore?
Me: That's because the piglet came out of her bum when it was born. But don't worry, the sore only lasts a few days or so.
Lilah: Oh. Well, when I came out of my Birth Mama in China, do you think she was sore?
Me: I'm very sure she was sweetie. All Mama's that have babies hurt for a while.
Lilah: Oh. (and then she ran off to get the craft she made at camp)

This conversation just clarifies to me how much she is processing and how much she understands about her birth and that she was born from her Mama in China. Before now, she would basically just repeat what I told her about her adoption, etc., but the fact that she knew she wasn't born from me and how she pieced this together herself, it blew me away.

And I was reminded yet again of this amazing gift I've been given, to mother this beautiful girl.

picking daisies

There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer,
and the morning more fragrant than ever again.” ~elizabeth lawrence

[ more pictures here ]

a week of summer day camp

I dropped my *heart* off at day camp this morning.

It's the first morning and runs Monday to Friday. I don't even have words for the first moment you put your child's life into someone else's hands, and walk away. All I can do is worry about things like: Will she know to eat enough? Drink enough? Know where the toilet is? Apply sunscreen? They're also going on day trips, to the local wading pool, the Experimental Farm and the Museum of Nature, throughout the week. My *heart*, on a bus, without me?

I'm positively dying!

And here's the thing, she woke up this morning, too sleepy to open her eyes, yet even in her sleepy state she could ecstatically ask, "AM I GOING TO DAY CAMP TODAY?!

Indeed, she didn't look back.
But for Mama, it's so hard to let go. Tell me I'm not alone...

All ready and excited to walk to daycamp!
Thankfully it's just up the street, so I can be there in a heartbeat, if needed.

**updated**

I got a fully animated description of everything that happened at day camp today, including singing (already memorized songs about sticky bubblegum!), crafts, games, stories and the cookie baking experience they all participated in. Also, how one of the staff (Simon) was a tricky boy and that he tricked her and played jokes with her - she totally gravitates towards this kind of silly/funny, because that's how her Baba boy acts - he literally teases the life out of her and she loves it!

She had SO MUCH fun!

And I have to tell you, the smile on her face when I arrived to pick her up, how she ran into my arms and loved me all over - all evening long she couldn't keep her arms and lips off me, this part is so new to me, because we've never been apart before. It was beautiful. She told me she loved me forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.

My heart is so full right now.

And then when I asked her if she wanted to go back to camp tomorrow and she shouted "YESSSSSSSSSSSS!".

Well, that was the best feeling in the world.

I knew she was ready for it - it's just me that wasn't. And maybe I never will be, but as long as she's happy, I am too.

top ten questions this week

1. Do turtles have boobies?
2. Mama, I love you. Will you never get lost or die?
3. What is our Volvo made from?
4. What holds the road up?
5. Why are there clouds in the sky?
6. How does the boat stay on top of the water?
7. What makes the rain?
8. Where's Piggy from? ...Halifax? Territories? British Columbia? Berta? Catchwan? Quebec? ...dunno?
9. Did God give us the money for that?

And last, but not least...

10. Because that's the way it goes? Or do you need to Google that?

strawberry pickin'

We went strawberry picking today. You might not believe this, but it's our first time! And Lilah? Had to be peeled off the ceiling, because she was just so over-the-moon excited.

It was a blistering hot day. Probably not the best choice as far as the weather goes, but such is life. We did go into the shade a few times, however we were quickly chased back out into the sunshine by those horrid little mosquitoes! They're like me, they like the shade better than the sun!

Anyway, heat and all we had a fantastic time gathering strawberries. I'm glad there were no 'human' weigh in and outs, otherwise Lilah may have cost me more than the 2 litre basket we picked!

It certainly won't be the last time we're back!

[ the flickr set is here ]

swimming, kiddie goats, ice-cream, etc...

Our last day in Picton. We started our morning with breakfast and then went down to the swimming pool, because a day is not a day without some fun in the water for our little fish.

I don't think I've ever mentioned it here, but every Wednesday this past winter and spring Lilah and I were going our local (indoor) swimming pool together. I didn't put her into lessons, we just went to the pool and had fun together. Well, she is such a great little swimmer now, of course she won't try swimming without the noodle, but she can swim like crazy with it tucked under her - it's really only a matter of getting her to give it up. I've also noticed that swimming has given her a lot more stamina and energy than she used to have. I'm so proud of her, to think that she used to be so petrified of water. Not only does she love water now, but she loves the deep part of the water, where she can't touch the ground. I guess it's easier to swim where it's deep!

After swimming we showered, checked out of the hotel and set off towards Bloomfield/Picton again.

We were driving past this farm. Actually, we'd driven past it about three or four times by this stage (of our holiday) and I'd seen a little pen of kiddie goats. So as we drove past it (yet again), I asked my husband to turn the vehicle around and go back to the farm! I decided I was going to ask the farmer if we could let Lilah see the little kiddie goats. He was very sweet and told us to go right ahead! "You can even take pictures!", he exclaimed! ...little did he know who he was talking to!

As children, both Colin and I grew up with some goats around the house. In fact, I was fondly known as "The Goat Woman"! And, I was allowed to have sugary cereal for breakfast, but only if it was swimming in goat's milk - I'm talking straight milked from the goat, goat's milk. Believe me, it was rough, but as a child I thought it was so worth it for a bowl of sugar puffs or coco pops! Anyway, all that aside, we were thrilled to introduce Lilah to the kiddie goats. Colin grew up on a farm, which is so obvious with his natural affection for animals, especially farm animals.

After visiting with the goats, we headed into Bloomfield and got one of Slickers homemade ice-creams. Say hello to delicious! Lilah got vanilla flavour, which was yummy, and Colin and I got our running favourite, rhubarb and ginger. Believe me when I tell you, you have never tasted ice-cream like this before!

After ice-cream and a little bit of shopping, we headed to one of our favourite little eateries on the road home, County Cider. They serve these amazing platters that everything is locally grown and produced. We got the cheese platter and also the hummus and olives platter, yummy, they were both delicious. We also took a walk through the vines and Lilah got to see the grapes growing. She and her Baba were up to their crazy old antics - falling around and whatnot! Sometimes I wonder if I have two children, rather than one! Heh!

Goodbye holidays, we miss you already!

[ the flickr sets are here, here and here ]